Next to Spring, Autumn is one of my favorite time of the year. The kids would probably say "winter" because of the highly anticipated Christmas presents. But Autumn is definitely more fun even if we do need to do a bit of raking in our own backyard! Everywhere is a jumble of glorious gold and brown chaos. There'll be chestnuts to gather and beautiful leaves to collect. And there is no sound more delightful, than the sound of leaves crunching under our feet as we ramble through the woods. Autumn also means a lot of festive celebrations.
 |
| A ramble in the woods |
In Germany, we celebrate the "Erntedankfest" on the first Sunday of October. It closely resembles Thanksgiving. Although we do not actually celebrate this at home, most kindergartens and schools generally make a special day of it. Baby M made apple juice from the apples harvested in the kindergarten's orchard, then all parents (grandparents and guests) were invited to a lunch of vegetable soup accompanied by homemade juice. Baby A's school did something similar, combining that with Halloween.
In November, the children will be looking forward to St. Martin's Day. The highlight is a procession of children with candle-lit lanterns. Although St. Martin's Day falls on November 11, the procession in our town has been fixed to the nearest Saturday, thus November 10 this year. With the route arranged before hand, all street lights along the way will be turned off punctually at 18:00. Led by a horse rider dressed as St. Martin, we will be accompanied by a couple of marching bands. There will be a giant bonfire and sweet buns for all children made in the shape of St. Martin at the end of the procession. At the moment, everyone is putting on finishing touches on their lanterns. (More of this in the next Blog).
No comments:
Post a Comment